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APPENDIX A: Safety Guidelines
Consider the following guidelines as you plan service projects:
- The exercise of due care requires an administrator to foresee dangers to students in his or her charge and to take whatever precautions seem reasonable to avoid them.
- Specifically, a supervisor is expected to establish rules for the guidance of his or her staff and to assign adequate supervision for any student activity, but the school and its staff are not expected to be insurers of the health and safety of students.
- The greater the possibility of injury, the greater the efforts that should be made to assure student safety.
- The closer the relationship of a student activity to the purposes and educational program of the school, the more likely a coordinator or other staff person is to be held accountable to the students for their well-being. This close link also increases the likelihood that an accident will be covered by liability insurance.
- In circumstances where supervision and control of student welfare are not feasible, extra care should be taken to assure that the circumstances into which the student is placed are not fraught with inherent dangers. Any necessary risks should be brought to the attention of both students and parents in advance.
- The degree of care required and the consequent amount of supervision expected increase as the age and maturity of students involved decrease.
- The location in which a student is injured is only one factor in the consideration of whether there was negligence and consequent legal liability on the part of the principal or other educator.
Reprinted from "Responsibilities for Student Injury Occurring Off School Property, A Legal Memorandum," Reston, Virginia: National Association of Secondary School Principals.
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